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Harley MS 546

Record Id:

040-001945651

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-001945651

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000195.0x000170

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 546

Title:

Medical miscellany

Scope & Content:

The manuscript includes translations of and elaborations on Latin medical treatises and recipes as follows:

Walter Agilon, 'De dosibus medicinarum' in the translation by Cormac MacDonlevy for Dermot MacDonall (ff. 1r-11r);

Medical compendium relating to ailments of the body (ff. 12r-19v, 37r-47r, 49r-54r);

Compendium of medical recipes (ff. 20r-35v);

An excerpt from a text relating to the cure of flatulence and of worms in the stomach (47v-48r);

John of Gaddesden, 'Rosa Anglica', excerpt, in an anonymous Irish translation (f. 57r);

Medical compendium relating to fevers (ff. 59r-68r);

Treatise on the plague (ff. 68r-69r);

Bernardus de Gordonio, Lilium Medicine, Chapter 5, De urinis, extract (ff. 70v-71r);

Treatise on urine (ff. 71r-72r).

Decoration:

Initials and display script marked in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection
Harley Science Project

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-001945651", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 546: Medical miscellany" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} },{ "id" : "041-001945652", "parent" : "040-001945651", "text" : "Harley MS 546, ff 1r-11r: Walter Agilon, De dosibus medicinarum" },{ "id" : "041-001945653", "parent" : "040-001945651", "text" : "Harley MS 546, ff 12r-19v: Medical compendium" },{ "id" : "041-001949782", "parent" : "040-001945651", "text" : "Harley MS 546, ff 20r-35r: Medical compendium" },{ "id" : "041-001949783", "parent" : "040-001945651", "text" : "Harley MS 546, ff 37r-47r: Medical compendium" },{ "id" : "041-001949784", "parent" : "040-001945651", "text" : "Harley MS 546, ff 47v-48r: Text relating to the cure of flatulence and of worms in the stomach" },{ "id" : "041-001949785", "parent" : "040-001945651", "text" : "Harley MS 546, ff 49r-54r: Medical compendium" },{ "id" : "041-001949786", "parent" : "040-001945651", "text" : "Harley MS 546, f 55r: Text relating to gout and its treatment" },{ "id" : "041-001949787", "parent" : "040-001945651", "text" : "Harley MS 546, f 57r: Johannes de Gaddesden, Rosa Anglica (excerpt)" },{ "id" : "041-001949788", "parent" : "040-001945651", "text" : "Harley MS 546, ff 59r-68r: Medical compendium relating to fevers" },{ "id" : "041-001949789", "parent" : "040-001945651", "text" : "Harley MS 546, ff 68r-69r: Treatise on the plague" },{ "id" : "041-001949791", "parent" : "040-001945651", "text" : "Harley MS 546, ff 70v-71r: Bernardus de Gordonio, Lilium Medicine, Chapter 5: De urinis (extract)" },{ "id" : "041-001949793", "parent" : "040-001945651", "text" : "Harley MS 546, ff 71r-72r: Treatise on urine" }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-001945651

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 546 : Medical miscellany

Contains:

Click here to View / search full list of parts of Harley MS 546

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0546]/040-001945651

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_546 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Irish
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1459

End Date:

1459

Date Range:

1459

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment codex.

Dimensions: 227 x 145 mm (text space: ff. 1r-11r: 145-160 x 105-110 mm; ff. 12r-72r: 148-155 x 100-110 mm).

Foliation: ff. ix + 72 (including 3 mediaval parchment flyleaves at the beginning). Modern foliation in pencil ff. '1-72' (including blanks; ff. 11v, 36r-36v, 48v, 51v, 54v, 56-56v, 58, 69v, 70, 72v blank).

Collation: three parchment flyleaves, i^12-1 (first cancelled), ii-iv⁸, v⁶, vi^8-1 (first missing), vii⁶ (i.e. ff. 49-54, originally gathering vi, now misplaced), viii-ix², x⁸, xi^8-2 (seventh and eighth cancelled), horizontal catchword on f. 36v suggests the loss of one or more gatherings after this leaf.

Layout: Ruled in hard point (single vertical bounding lines) for double columns of 39 lines (ff. 1r-11r) and single columns of 33-40 lines (ff. 12r-72r). Texts above top line.

Script : Insular cursive; written in dark brown ink by several scribes, the first of whom provided a colophon (f. 11r) which dates the copy to 1459: 'Tairnic ann / sin libhur Galteruis do dosisib na leigheas / Cormac mac duinnthshlebi do cuir / in tsuim so a ngaeidheilg do diarmaid mac / domnaill hil leighin … In cethrumhadh lá do Calainn April do crichnaigedh in forcedal so a Cluain Uamha … 1459'.

Binding: British Museum binding.

Custodial History:

Origin: Ireland, ff. 1r-11r copied at Cloyne, Co. Cork, Ireland, on 29 March 1459. The rest of the manuscript was probably copied in or shortly after 1459.

Provenance:

John O'Callanan: his note in Latin and Irish (f. 55v) and pen trials (f. 58v).

The Desmond Fitzgeralds of Desmond, Co. Cork, Ireland: owned in the 16th century, family obits ending with Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th earl of Desmond, in 1583 (f. 57r).

The Barrys of Barry Court, Co. Cork, Ireland: owned in the late 16th and early 17th century, family obits ending with James Barry, possibly the son of David, 5th viscount Barry, in 1609 (f. 57v).

Sir Simonds d'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Watson 1966; Wright 1972).

Sir Simonds D’Ewes (d. 1722), 3rd baronet and grandson of the former: inherited and later sold the D’Ewes library to Robert Harley on 4 October 1705 for £450 (see Add. 70478 (formerly Loan 29/254 packet 2); Watson 1966).

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts.

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), I (1808), no. 546.

Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum, ed. by Standish Hayes O’Grady, Robin Flower, revised by Myles Dillon, 3 vols (London: the British Museum, 1926-1953), I, p. 171-201, III, pl. 4.

Rosa Anglica, seu Rosa Medicinæ, Johannis Anglici: An early modern Irish translation of a section of the mediaeval medical text-book of John of Gaddesden, ed. by Winifred Wulff, Irish Texts Society, 25 (London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1929), p. lv.

Shawn Sheahan, 'An Irish Version [by Cormac Mac Duinnthshlebi] of Gaulterus de Dosibus [i.e. of the work usually known as "Medicine quidam sunt simplices"]'. A dissertation ... (Washington: Catholic University of America, 1938), p. 28.

Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), no. A907, pp. 60, 91 n. 308.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. xviii, n. 3.

Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 65, 131, 382.

Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), I, p. 119, no. 636.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)